A Michigander Beat The Cold With A Battery-Powered Removable Jacket Heater

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Anthony DeVito, 37, grew up in central Michigan, farther north than both Chicago and Detroit. After attending college in the state, he spent another 10 years working in construction and engineering, building everything from roads and bridges to light rails and airport buildings. It was more than enough time for him to realize that he hated being cold.

So after a decade in Michigan, he packed up and moved to Los Angeles, with an average January low of about 50 degrees Fahrenheit. It wasn't until seven years later when DeVito’s brother scheduled a wedding in northern Michigan — during December, no less — that DeVito began once again seriously dreading a midwestern cold spell.

In preparation for the wedding, he sought to buy an extremely warm jacket, one that could handle day after day of temperatures well below freezing. He stumbled upon the concept of a heated jacket with an internal heater that can be plugged in and charged. Unfortunately, nearly every product he found was bulky and designed for outdoor labor like hunting or traffic control rather than for everyday wear. “So, I thought, ‘maybe there is a heater I can put in the jacket I already have,’” he says. “And to my surprise, it didn’t exist.” Like any good engineer-turned-entrepreneur, DeVito decided to make one.

The Torch Coat Heater attaches to any jacket

Credit: Torch Electrek

The result is the Torch Coat Heater, the first product from DeVito-founded Torch Electrek. It’s a battery-powered heater, designed to be quickly connected to any jacket. The name comes from the fact that the heater can be moved over and over into other jackets, reminiscent of "passing the torch." The thin device uses small wires that heat up when electricity is passed through them, allowing the Torch Coat Heater to provide approximately five hours of 90-to-135-degree heat via three strategically placed panels. The latest version sells for $109 and is available in three scaled sizes.

Prior to the company’s launch, DeVito ran the idea through what he refers to as the ‘gauntlet:’ a series of four questions designed to separate marketable and profitable ideas from poor ones. First was whether or not it was a good idea, which DeVito admits can be subjective and recommends asking of multiple people. “Maybe you think a puke-flavored jelly bean is a good idea,” he says, “but hopefully your friends will help you come to your senses.” Next, he considered both whether it was practical and whether consumers would buy it, and finally, if it had the ability to be a profitable business.

To answer some of those questions, DeVito ordered samples of heated clothing from manufacturers online, studying what he liked and didn’t like about each sample. After learning about the technology, he sketched out loose directions and had a prototype made in China. “But my directions were clearly not the best, and the first prototypes they sent me were not up to my expectations,” he admits. So he recruited someone he knew was an expert at sewing: his mother-in-law. She aided him in creating the first successful prototype, which he sent to several manufacturers to determine who could produce it at the lowest price.

Without significant personal funding available, DeVito crowdfunded the campaign in 2016 with the financial assistance of two friends, one of whom became a co-founding partner. The campaign was fully funded at with more than 460 backers, and DeVito was able to introduce the Torch Coat Heater 2.0 in early 2017. While the heaters are popular with skiers and snowboarders, he’s sold them to cold-weather baseball fans, motorcycle enthusiasts, and a mountaineer climbing Everest. They’re also being tested for military applications.

Torch Electrek is based in Denver, Colorado, allowing products to be tested in the harsh weather of the Rocky Mountains. They have just three full-time employees and are still completely privately funded. Though they sell through a few speciality retailers, most of their sales are directly from their website via word of mouth. Because most of the elements of their heating and battery packs come from China, changing tariffs can impact their supplies. As such, DeVito says their sales are only limited by inventory as they sell the heaters nearly as quickly as they get them delivered. They ended 2016 with $100,000 in revenue, ended 2017 with $200,000 in revenue, and expect to have ended 2018 with $400,000 in sales, effectively doubling every year.

Parts for the Torch Coat Heater in production

Credit: Torch Electrek

Given the company’s financial success and the nascency of the heated clothing industry, DeVito is always surprised that larger, more well-known outdoor clothing retailers haven’t introduced jackets with similar technology — so surprised, in fact, that he attended an outdoor clothing show just to ask that very question of companies. He found that some brands had already tried heated clothing but found that the bulky battery packs were a deterrent for consumers. Despite the fact that battery packs are now much smaller than they were just a few years ago, heated jackets are still far less common than insulated and down jackets when it comes to outerwear retailers. In DeVito’s view, however, that market trend will start to reverse as battery size continues to shrink while simultaneously growing in capacity and power. He believes that microscopic carbon fiber wires will eventually be woven directly into fabrics, creating heated options for all clothing articles. “I bet we will be able to power up our clothes without even connecting a battery, and with voice control,” DeVito says. “Hey Alexa, warm up my feet!”

In the last six months, DeVito has introduced a handful of new heated products to the company’s offerings, including touch-screen gloves, shoe insoles, a fitted base layer, and a lower back-support device that DeVito thought of during a particularly painful snowboard session. He says that he’ll continue to direct Torch Electrek with a focus on innovation, believing that no product is every fully finished. “It’s this refining process that makes great products,” he says. “You launch your MVP [minimal viable product,] you use it, your customers use it, you think of ways to make it better, you listen to your customers, and then you revise the product. That’s how we got to the Torch 2.0, and I think next year we will have the Torch 3.0.”